Olson v. Seldovia Salmon Co.

154 P. 1107, 89 Wash. 547, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 839
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 9, 1916
DocketNo. 12216
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 154 P. 1107 (Olson v. Seldovia Salmon Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Olson v. Seldovia Salmon Co., 154 P. 1107, 89 Wash. 547, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 839 (Wash. 1916).

Opinion

Fullerton, J.

On January 23, 1914, Louis Olson recovered a judgment against the Seldovia Salmon Company, a corporation, for the sum of $2,500, and costs of action taxed at $83.40. The corporation appealed from the judgment, giving a supersedeas bond with one Julius Redelsheimer and one S. S. Loeb, as sureties. While the cause was pending in this court, Julius Redelsheimer died, leaving a nonintervention will in which he named his wife, Glorivina Redelsheimer, and Benj amin Moyses, respectively, as executrix and executor of his estate. On November 19, 1915, this court delivered its opinion directing that the judgment be affirmed. 88 Wash. 225, 152 Pac. 1033. Thereafter, and before judgment was entered in this court on the order of affirmance, the respondent Olson filed his affidavit suggesting the death of Redelsheimer, and moved in this court, on notice, for a summary judgment on the bond against the appellant, the surety Loeb, and Glorivina Redelsheimer and Benjamin' Moyses, as executrix and executor respectively of the estate of Julius Redelsheimer, deceased. The motion is resisted by the executrix' and executor on various grounds. These we will notice in their order.

If we have correctly gathered the first objection, it is that the right of action on the bond did not survive the death of Julius Redelsheimer, first, because of the joint nature of the [549]*549obligation entered into; and, second, because his death was a revocation of his contract of suretyship operative as to any obligation arising subsequent thereto and that this obligation did so arise. It was the rule of the common law that, when a surety became jointly liable with his principal, the death of the surety ended the obligation as to both past and future defaults. This, however, was merely an application of the rule which prevailed at common law as to all joint obligations, and was abrogated by our statutes relating to the liability of joint obligors. Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 193, 236, 967 (P. C. 81 §§ 35, 165, 1827). This question was before us in Donnerberg v. Oppenheimer, 15 Wash. 290, 46 Pac. 254. Noticing the objection, we said:

“It is next urged that when the surety dies and the principal survives, that the surety’s estate is absolutely discharged, and the survivor only is liable. But this is not so under our statutes (Code Proc., §§ 704, 1042), which provide that in certain cases, which would include this one, where actions could have been maintained against the party if living, that the same may be prosecuted against his representatives.”

To the same effect is Megrath v. Gilmore, 15 Wash. 558, 46 Pac. 1032, where the following language was used:

“This case was before this court upon a former occasion (10 Wash. 339, 39 Pac. 131), to which reference can be had for a statement of the nature of the action. Pending the former appeal, Kirkman died, and it was stipulated in this court that the executors of his will might be substituted as defendants in his stead. When the second trial was begun the defendants moved to dismiss the action as against Kirk-man’s executors on the ground that there is no survival of liability against the Representatives of a deceased joint debtor. This point has been passed upon by this court contrary to appellants’ contention since his brief herein was filed. Donnerberg v. Oppenheimer, ante, p. 290 (46 Pac. 254).”

The rule invoked by the second part of the objection is limited to cases where the guarantor or surety might, if living, [550]*550have revoked Ms liability by giving notice, of which the obligation assumed in the present instance is not such. The governing principles are clearly stated by Circuit Judge Taft, in Fewlass v. Keeshan, 88 Fed. 573, in the following language:

“The first point made in tMs court by the appellants is that the cost bond does not bind the estate of the surety for any costs accruing after Ms death. The rule as to the obligation of a guarantor in respect to transactions occurring after his death is that the obligation is not affected by his death if the contract of guaranty was one from wMch he might not withdraw, upon notice, but that, if he could have done so, then his death will be given the effect of a notice of withdrawal, at least from the time when the knowledge of the same has been brought home to the obligee. The former proposition is sustained by the cases of Lloyd v. Harper, 16 Ch. Div. 290; Calvert v. Gordon, 3 Man. & R. 124; Green v. Young, 8 Me. 14; Moore v. Wallis, 18 Ala. 458, and Voris v. State, 47 Ind. 345. The alternative proposition is illustrated in the cases of Jordan v. Dobbins, 122 Mass. 168; Hyland v. Habich, 150 Mass. 112, 22 N. E. 765; Coulthart v. Clementson, 5 Q. B. Div. 42, and Gay v. Ward, 67 Conn. 147, 34 Atl. 1025. A court cannot release a surety upon a- cost bond without the consent of the party for whose benefit the security has been given. Holder v. Jones, 29 N. C. 191; Standard Publishing Co. v. Bartlett, 5 Wkly. Law Bul. 501. This feature of the obligation of a cost bond places it in the category of irrevocable guaranties, the obligations of wMch continue according to their terms, without regard to the death of the guarantor.”

To the same effect is the case of Estate of Rapp v. Phoenix Ins. Co., 113 Ill. 390, 55 Am. Rep. 427, where it is said:

“All voluntary bonds executed for a lawful purpose, like statutory bonds, derive whatever efficacy or binding force they have, from the positive law of the state, and in this respect there is no difference in the two classes of bonds. To hold that the estate of a surety on an ordinary trustee’s bond is absolutely discharged from all future liability upon the death of the surety, on the ground that his death is per se an extinguishment of the bond, would certainly be a startling [551]*551proposition to come from this or any other court of final resort; and yet to decide this case in conformity with appellant’s theory would be, in legal effect, to assert, as we understand it, that very proposition. We unhesitatingly decline, both upon reason and authority, to give our adhesion to any such a doctrine.”

A further objection is that the judgment creditor must exhaust his remedies against the principal debtor and the living surety before he can proceed against the representative of the estate of the deceased surety; and that, in any event, a summary judgment cannot be entered against such representatives in this court, but they must be proceeded against by an action on the bond in a court of the first instance. But it is clear that, if the decedent’s estate is liable at all upon the bond, it is liable in the first instance as a principal obligor; the rule being that, as between the obligors and the obligee, all of the obligors are principal debtors, though as between themselves they may have the rights and remedies resulting from the relation of principal and surety. Babbitt v. Finn, 101 U. S. 7. See, also, our own case of Long Bell Lumber Co. v. Gaston, 78 Wash. 598, 139 Pac. 641. Since, therefore, the estate of a deceased surety is liable to the obligee as a principal debtor, its representatives cannot claim as against him the remedies which might be applicable between the estate and its immediate principal.

Nor do we think the objection against a summary judgment well taken. The statute (Rem.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 P. 1107, 89 Wash. 547, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 839, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/olson-v-seldovia-salmon-co-wash-1916.